Gordon Zahn, an author and longtime advocate for nonviolence, died Dec. 9 in Milwaukee.

He was 89 and had struggled with Alzheimer’s disease for several years.

Zahn, a graduate of the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, became a leading figure in the Catholic pacifism movement, writing several books on the subject and cofounding Pax Christi USA, a Catholic peace organization.

Daniel Ellsberg, an anti-war activist and former Pentagon official who leaked to the press a top-secret report now called the Pentagon Papers – a study on the U.S. government’s involvement in the Vietnam War – said he was greatly inspired during the war by Zahn’s book “In Solitary Witness: The Life and Death of Franz Jagerstatter.”

Zahn’s most popular book, it tells the story of an Austrian peasant who was beheaded by the Nazis in 1943 after refusing to join the German army.

“I was very moved by his book,” said Ellsberg. “It was very strengthening in keeping me going in the anti-war movement.”

The story of Jagerstatter, a Catholic, was relatively unknown until Zahn published his biography in 1964. As a Fulbright senior research fellow, Zahn was in Germany in 1956 researching another book, “German Catholics and Hitler’s Wars,” when he stumbled upon Jagerstatter’s story.

This year, Pope Benedict XVI declared Jagerstatter a martyr, who then was beatified by the church.

Like Jagerstatter, Zahn made it clear he would not participate in military service during World War II. His objection to war was a belief formed while growing up in Milwaukee, said cousin Pat Doyle. In response, the government sent Zahn to a camp for conscientious objectors. The experience inspired the book “Another Part of War: The Camp Simon Story.”

After the war ended, St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minn., offered Zahn a full scholarship when he had little money and found it difficult to get into colleges because of his conscientious objector status. His time there lasted only a year, however. Several chaplains at the school complained that Zahn should not have received the scholarship because of his pacifist beliefs, said Sylvester Theisen, a friend and professor emeritus at St. John’s.

“He wasn’t entirely popular there with his classmates and professors because of his position on the war,” said Doyle.

After the year at St. John’s, the school arranged to transfer Zahn to St. Thomas.

But Zahn remained grateful to St. John’s, and in 1982, the school awarded him with its highest honor, the Pax Christi Award, and called him an “articulate spokesman for nonviolence” and “a remarkable example.”

While at St. Thomas, Zahn studied sociology under U.S. Sen. Eugene McCarthy, a college professor at the time, and the two became friends. Zahn graduated in 1949 and earned a master’s degree and doctorate from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

Zahn was an assistant professor of sociology at Loyola University in Chicago from 1953 to 1967 before becoming a sociology professor at the University of Massachusetts in Boston for the next 13 years. He then served for a decade as president and national director of the Center on Conscience & War in Washington.

Zahn also offered advice on the creation of the justice and peace studies program at St. Thomas.

“It’s a thriving major here at St. Thomas,” said Jim Winterer, news service director for the university.

Though a vocal advocate for pacifism, Zahn did not involve himself in marches or protests. He believed pacifism was a personal commitment, not a political one, said Theisen, who added that his friend was a highly intelligent man who believed strongly in dialogue.

“He was consistently a person who was very kind and compassionate,” Theisen said. “He was always respectful, not just as a pose, but genuinely.”

A service will be at 10 a.m. Tuesday at St. Martin de Porres Catholic Church in Milwaukee.

Andy Rathbun can be reached atarathbun@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-2121.

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